Spark Classic – Email App for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By EastSky

  Best Multi-Account Email Client I've tried!

  I'm a dual OS user (currently Windows 10 & PC)-- and I have been since 1996 (Windows XP & Windows OS8/9). Ever since my company dropped CC:Mail (circa '90s) and migrated to Microsoft Office and Outlook, I've been using it successfully on Windows and Mail on my PC (ever since Windows OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard). Mail started having issues with my multiple accounts (10 ), so I switched over to Outlook, which I honestly liked much better. At first, it worked fine, but then started having the same issues as Microsoft Mail-- locking up, hanging-- the only app in my aresenal that seems to do so! I have Outlook 2019 for Windows (and 2016 before it), which is nearly identical to Office 365 version, but it still just can't handle it. Constant pauses. I have been searching for an email client that would work better than Outlook for a while-- either the feature set was too sparse, or it was too thin and/or buggy. Enter Spark. Whew! What a life-saver! I've been using it for a month or more now, and not a single lockup. LOVE the Smart reading pane-- FANTASTIC! Outlook could learn a few things (besides getting rid of the bugs with multiple accounts)! I only wish that Spark was a true stand alone app and didn't force me to create an online account with them. I would happily pay money for the client-- but I guess with the online account I'm sharing data that essentially is.

  
  
• By Herb 2111

  Near painless email

  There is so much right with this program that I would gladly pay, and pay a lot, for it--the fact that's free is hard to believe. I use it on all platforms--phone, tablet, desktop, laptop-and it finally cured me of POP. I used to create a lot of categories and tags with my old programs (Postbox--prior to that Thunderbird--prior to that Mail) so as to keep track of things, but the search function in Spark is so robust that I don't have to now--I use gmail, which keeps an archive, and Spark searches it seemingly instantly. Somehow everything is quicker with Spark, and simpler. I can follow the threads now--that always confused me in Postbox. I use the "send later" function, which I find essential, and which is an add on in Thunderbird and Postbox--but it's built right in to Spark--thank goodness, because I couldn't do without it. I could go on and on. One thing I miss--in Postbox I could resize any graphic by clicking and dragging. In Spark you can reduce graphics, but you have to pick a size--small, medium, or large. That's the only thing I miss--but the tradeoff is well worth it. I spend a lot less time on email now. One more thing--I was constantly looking up how to do things in the manual of my old program--I don't even know if there is a Spark manual--but I seem fine without it--truly amazing.

  
  
• By 2010mastersdegree

  New to Spark, but…..

  I use several email clients due to work, my own business, personal, etc. To say I despise the Gmail format is an understatement, so I was looking for something relatively user friendly, streamlined, and fast to manage, as I have planned to incorporate all these emails into one client by “forwarding.” I am trying Spark after using Outlook for yeasrs. I like a lot of the customization of Spark, but where it shines for me is the ability to customize the “swipe” feature. I can move emails around immediately without going to the ribbon IF I customize it to suit my own needs. Yes, you have to take some time to learn the mechanics of it, and yes you have to customize it, and YES it’s a learning curve (albeit not a steep one). I’ve had it for less than two weeks and the only bit I don’t use yet is where I might connect it to a “note” app. For me, I would have liked to see a “Notes” feature inside Sperk to activate shoudl I choose instead of using one of these other programs, but I get that this would work for many folks…..I’m not one of them, though, as my notes are really quick and short (think stickies more than notebook notes). That said, it’s not a heavy user program, IMO. It’s for those of us with short message needs and to keep our heads above water with all our clients. In that, I think it’ll be a keeper. (and let’s face it….ANYTHING is better than the Windows’s mail app—or at least I think so).

  
  
• By mfears

  Recommend Microsoft Mail Instead

  I started using Spark over a year ago. The interface seemed better than Microsoft Mail so I decided to purchase. After using this mail client for some time I realized it was not as user friendly as I originally thought. I had ongoing trouble and confusion because of how it displays mail threads and how it will sometimes remove part of the thread randomly or show the missing parts as a separate email. What I was accustom to was all of the related emails being grouped together but Spark does this only partially and randomly at that. Many times I spent several minutes (up to an hour) trying to find information that was in an email earlier in the thread. Then I would discover the needed email for reasons I couldn't understand would not be included in the thread even though it was part of the thread. The interface is so confusing that I would reply to emails asking for information that had already been supplied. Another annoying issue is if you reply to an email from the preview view, it truncates the email deleting all of the email thread. If you want to forward or reply including the thread, you must open the email in a new window. Never could get used to that. Microsoft released an update to Microsoft Mail which with many improvements. I've deleted Spark and gone back to Microsoft Mail and all of my problems are gone. The experience with Spark was promising but quickly declined as I discovered how erratic confusing the UI is with Spark.

  
  
• By Joe Clay

  Spark is the best email client on PC

  I’ve been a Windows user since about 2003. I started out with Mail and grew to really hate the interface. I jumped to various clients after. I even used Thunderbird for a time. Then I paid to use Airmail through version 3. While it was OK, every version had bugs they never got around to fixing, and it seemed to always have issues with accounts and syncing. I just can’t accept issues with technology (email) that basically predates the world wide web. When I discovered Spark, I jumped over. Spark has few bugs—and certainly not the ones that have actually lost me email in Airmail. Setting up multiple machines takes 2 seconds because sync actually works flawlessly. The search is way better than Airmail, which was always a gripe of mine. The only thing that Airmail has over Spark is being able to single out messages from the same sender, but Spark's smart view kind of makes that irrelevant. Spark’s smart view also helps me to clean out my email quicker. It’s really well done. I also prefer how it handles attachments—it puts them at the bottom of the message rather than inline. I do wish it’d remind me if I use a word like “attach” or “attached” to double check that I attached something. But the last email client that did that for me was Thunderbird so I’m not knocking it. I can’t see myself switching from Spark as long as it stays as good as it currently is. Nothing else on PC comes close.

  
  

Leave a review or comment